Tag Archive: Kitchen Talk

Cooking Korean Food Anywhere: How I’m going to help you in 2007

Cooking Korean Food Anywhere

There is a definite recommendation from wise people that if you want to achieve something like quiting smoking or losing some weight, you need to let other people know about it. That way, they can help you and encourage you to achieve your goal.

Today, I am going to talk about my new years resolutions about My Korean Kitchen. Some of you may say, “What kind of resolution would there be for cooking and a blog?”

Well there is. I cook because I really like having decent food, so I need to keep experimenting to satisfy my desire. I photograph because I like taking pictures of what I made and eat and want to show off about it. I blog because I want to make my own journal of recipes that please me, though it is even better if it pleases you too. :)

I have been achieving my blogging goals that I made before I started My Korean Kitchen, which was to get some audience to share my experience and be a helper for those who love to cook Korean food.

Now, the time has come to move on to the next goal to make a better blog for you and me.

Resolution 1. Design and Accessibility

Michael and I are working on how to change the looks of My Korean Kitchen. I am 100% relying on Michael and always will be for any technical changes. So, Michael! I want a design that looks authentic, simple and catchy and easy to search for other users. Did you hear me? :D

Resolution 2. Renovating Kitchen

As some of you know, I am moving to Australia, possibly permanently. I don’t know where we are moving into yet, but I would really love to have a bigger kitchen with lots of space where I can mess around easily, and with a couple of big windows next to it. At the moment, I am struggling when I take some pictures, because of the light and space problem. I need to clear the background each time I take a picture, because I don’t have enough room on the table, and living in a tiny match box looking apartment with no natural light all day is pretty depressing as it is. So I am not going to move in if I can’t get any natural light in my kitchen in Australia. Otherwise Michael! you need to buy me a photo studio set.

Resolution 3. New Cooking Adventure

There are hundreds of Korean foods I haven’t tried yet. That is because certain things are cheaper if I buy them instead of making them myself in Korea, but that situation will change in Australia. I will have difficulty finding ingredients to make lots of things. However, I will share the pain of some of my readers who are having some difficulties in finding ingredients, and it will bring us closer. :) I am also going to do some planting (tomatoes, chilies, spring onions etc), so I am very excited about this. “Cooking with home grown veggies.”

Resolution 4. Publishing

Cooking Korean Food Anywhere How I'm going to help you in 2007 Korean Black Bean Noodles

Publishing your own book is every blogger’s dream I think, especially for a food blogger. I am planning on publishing my own Korean cook book. I know there are several Korean cook books already. However, I have the advantage of having this blog. I can interact with readers, so whenever they have questions I can give them an answer very quickly. (For a recipe book, I am going to adjust my current recipes and take whole new photos from scratch) I am considering a print on demand system for publishing, but I haven’t found a web site that does color printing yet. So if you happen to know what I am looking for give me some advice.

I certainly don’t want these resolutions to end with one summer night’s dream. I will appreciate any comments if you have some good ideas.

(This post has been submitted to problogger’s group project “Reviews and Predictions“)

Some Things I Want to Say

Dear, My Korean Kitchen Readers,

I’ve had this blog nearly 3 months now. Thanks to ZenKimchi and The Journal of a Girl who Loves To Cook I had a lot of visitors lately. Thank you both of you.

I really appreciate some of you who like my blog, visit regularly, and interact with me by leaving me some comments even if my writing isn’t humorous or as useful to you as it could be.

Before I get to the point, I apologize in advance that my writing can be very blunt or can be rude, due to my English barrier or my personality I got from the garlic and chili food culture. (like Italians, Mexicans etc) :)

chilies

Recently, I have found some difficulty in answering people who started to request from me certain recipes I haven’t posted yet, or comparing my recipes to someone else’s then asking many questions about why they are different.

I would like to answer properly everything you ask though this is Not a company owned website nor am I a super girl who can do everything. It usually takes me about 2-3 hours just to write one post and choose the pictures to upload for that post. Also, when I cook, it takes another 1-3 hours depending on the food, because I am taking pictures on the way, which is the specialty of My Korean kitchen. So I often spend 5-6 hours (sometimes more) on a post.

Cooking, writing, and photographing for this blog is a full time job for me. I don’t have much time to translate other recipes or research and answer why the certain recipes are different for you. A lot of the meals I cook are experiments. I encourage you to add, or change ingredients if you want. Experiment and have fun with your cooking, if it tastes good, go with it.

chapssalddeok

I am leaving Korea, possibly permanently, in three months. So the priority of the recipes I cook while in Korea are :

  • Food that has ingredients I can’t get easily outside of Korea (i.e. Korean ingredients).
  • Recipes that most people want to see.
  • Food that isn’t too expensive (within our household budget)
  • Food I like (If I don’t eat it, what’s the use of cooking it?)

Once I leave Korea, the recipes might be even more useful for you since most of my readers are from outside of Korea. As you can guess, I will need to start from scratch. I will need to find sources of ingredients and might have to make some ingredients myself to cook certain food.

There is a reason for not posting certain recipes right now, like rice cake or noodle dough etc. When the time comes, you will get to see what you want. So, please be patient with me. Of course you are still welcome to ask for certain foods or meals. I make a note of your suggestions and will make it in the future if I can.

Here are some links I think are good English recipe resources. If I don’t have the recipe you want yet, try these websites.

TriFood

KBS Global Cuisine

Korean Restaurant Guide